Prehistoric Art - Paleolithic
(2 million years ago-13,000 BC.)
The several Millennia following 30,000 BCE saw a powerful outburst of
creativity.
The works produced by the peoples of the OLD STONE AGE or
PALEOLITHIC period (from the Greek paleo, old, and lithos, stone) are an
astonishing variety. They range from simple shell necklaces to human and
animal forms in ivory, clay, and stone to monumental paintings,
engravings, and relief sculptures covering the huge wall surfaces of caves.
During the Paleolithic period, humankind went beyond the recognition of
human and animal forms in the natural environment to the
representation (literally, the presenting again- in different and substitute
form- of something observed) of humans and animals. The immensity of
this achievement cannot be exaggerated.
Paleolithic
• Animal Facing Left
• Human with Feline Head
• Venus of Willendorf
• Bison
• Spotted Horse & Negative Handprints
• Hall of Bulls
Animal facing Left, from the Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia, ca. 23,000 BCE. Charcoal on
stone, approx. 5” x4 ¼”. State Museum of Namibia, Windhoek.
Between 1969 & 1972, scientists working in the Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia found
seven fragments of stone plaques with paint on them, including four or five
recognizable images of animals. In most cases, the species is uncertain, but the forms
are always carefully rendered. The charcoal from the archaeological layer in which the
Namibian plaques were found has been dated to around 23,000 BCE.
Human with Feline head, from Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, ca. 30,000-28,000 BCE.
Mammoth ivory, 11 5/8” high. Ulmer Museum, Ulm.
Carved out of mammoth ivory & nearly a foot tall- a truly huge image for its era- the
statuette represents something that existed only in the vivid imagination of the
unknown sculptor who conceived it. It is a human (whether male or female is debated)
with a feline head.
The animal-headed humans of Paleolithic art sometimes have been called sorcerers
and described as magicians wearing masks.
Venus of Willendorf
Nude woman, from Willendorf, Austria, ca. 28,00025,000 BCE. Limestone, approx. 4 ¼” high.
Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna.
The anatomical exaggeration has suggested to many
that this and similar statuettes served as fertility
images. But other Paleolithic stone women of far more
slender proportions exist, and the meaning of these
images is as elusive as everything else about Paleolithic
art.
The sculptor did not aim for naturalism in shape and
proportion. As with most Paleolithic figures, the
sculptor did not carve any facial features. Here the
carver suggested only a mass of curly hair or as some
researches have recently argued, a hat woven from
plant fibers.
In either case, the emphasis is on female fertility. The
breast of the Willendorf woman are enormous, far
larger than the tiny forearms and hands that rest upon
them. Whatever the purpose of such statuettes, the
makers’ intent seems to have been to represent not a
specific woman but the female form.
Bison- Detail of a painted ceiling in the Altamira cave, Santander, Spain, ca. 12,000-11,000 BCE.
Each Bison approx. 5’ long.
The discovery of Altamira- The works examined here thus far, whether portable or fixed to rocky
outcroppings or cave walls, are all small. They are dwarfed by the “herds” of painted animals
that roam the cave walls of southern France and northern Spain, where some of the most
spectacular prehistoric art has been discovered. The first examples of cave paintings were found
accidentally by an amateur archaeologist in 1897 at Altamira, Spain. Don Marcelino Sanz de
Sautuola was exploring on his estate a cave where he had already found specimens of flint and
carved bone. His daughter Maria was with him when they reached a chamber some 85 feet
from the cave’s entrance. Because it was dark and the ceiling of the debris-filled cavern was only
a few inches above the father’s head, the child was the first to discern, from her lower vantage
point, the shadowy forms of painted beasts on the cave room.
At Pech-Merle in France, painted hands accompany representations of spotted horses.
These and the majority of painted hands at other sites are “negative,” that is, the
painter placed one hand against the wall and then brushed or blew or spat pigment
around it. Occasionally, the painter dipped a hand in the pigment and then pressed it
against the wall, leaving a “positive” imprint. Some scholars have considered them
“signatures” of cult or community members or, less likely, of individual painters. But
like everything else in Paleolithic art, their meaning is unknown.
Perhaps the best-known Paleolithic cave is that at Lascaux, near Montignac, France. It
is extensively decorated, but most of the paintings are hundreds of feet from any
entrance. The most magnificent is a large circular gallery, characteristically far
removed from the daylight, called the Hall of the Bulls. Not all of the painted animals
are bulls, despite the modern nickname, and the several species depicted vary in size.
Many are represented using colored silhouettes, as in the cave at Altamira and on the
Namibian plaque. Others– such as the great bull at the right of the illustration– were
created by outline along, as were the Pech-Merle horses.
Good websites to check out!
• http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/prehistori
c/paleolithic.htm
• http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/#/en/00.xml/
• http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHprehistoric.ht
ml#paleolithic
CitationsGardner’s Art Through The Ages, 12th Edition. Fred S. Kleiner Christin J. Mamiya.